


heart swells

by MiniNephthys



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: A moment of reflection on monsters defeated.





	

Eyes should frighten him.

It’s only natural. Eyes where they shouldn’t be make for one of the most common minor fears that human beings have. Like spiders, or clowns - nothing debilitating, but enough to unnerve.

Eyes should frighten him, and the increase of eyes on the trees by the day should make him worry. Eyes don’t usually grow like fruit - he could ask Cody about it and she’d scoff at such a silly question. Of course they don’t.

But he doesn’t ask, because he isn’t worried. All those eyes popping up everywhere only remind him of the creature he fought in the forest.

It’s strange. The feeling of being watched is an unpleasant one; the feeling of being watched over isn’t. It seems closer to being guarded by those eyes than anything else.

Even if there’s nothing to be guarded from, it lets him feel a little more at ease.

* * *

She bakes a cake.

It’s not her birthday, but it is a special occasion. Her father is coming home, and he’ll be too tired to cook: she wants to greet him with an extra-special meal, complete with delicious dessert.

So she bakes a cake. It’s not nearly as big as the one she fought underneath that tree - that would feed the whole town, not just her and her dad. And that cake was way too messy, with icing dripping everywhere: hers is a lot neater.

Yet she can’t help but think about that cake even when she’s putting her own in the oven. Is it just because she didn’t taste any of it…? That must be it - since she has no way of getting a bite of it now, she’ll be wondering for awhile what its flavor was.

But that’s alright. This cake will be much better, since she can share it with her dad. She doesn’t need to think about that other cake anymore.

* * *

He doesn’t want her to think about it any longer.

Truth be told, he doesn’t want to think about it any longer, himself. Killing a living being has never sat well with him, no matter what chaos they were causing. Slaying it was necessary to stop the creature’s destruction of Darcover Town, but he feels no pride over the deed.

Her guilt is palpable every time they pass by the town and he sees her glance in the direction of that hill. She did nothing wrong - he has commended her for her bravery, and does so every time the subject comes up before changing the topic of conversation - but the form that monster took, and the words it spoke…

It was meant to prey at their weakness, he reminds himself. It was a cruel trick by a fiend, and nothing more than that.

Even so, he finds himself missing their mother more often than usual.

* * *

The incident could not have gone better.

Not realistically, at least. The dragon bound in that scroll was defeated, so none of them were killed. No other goods in the warehouse were destroyed. The warehouse owner was thankful to them. And, of course, the fact that he was able to see the scroll in the first place is something he can’t take for granted.

Yes, indeed, it was a fortunate turn of events. He could not wish for a different outcome.

And yet… some part of him wishes he hadn’t had to fight the dragon.

He had to. Didn’t he? The creature was on a rampage. The warehouse owner said it himself that without his intervention, the warehouse would have had to have been destroyed. He did good work that day.

In the back of his mind, he can’t quite shake the thought that he was the one who came to the scroll with the thought of harming it. The dragon would have never encountered him if he’d left it alone.

Well. He did good work, and no one important was harmed in the process.


End file.
